The invention concerns a support element for a cushion cover for seating and lying areas, preferably for mattresses, comprising a base plate that can be fixed to a base, and at least one spring element formed by a plurality of spring arms and extending upward from the base plate in the direction of the cushion cover, wherein the spring arms each are provided with a substantially U-shaped corrugated spring element on the upper ends thereof, oriented away from the base plate, said corrugated spring element comprising at least two parallel spaced spring legs located on concentric ring tracks and disposed about the central axis of the support element and at least one connecting bar joining the spring legs, one end of the spring leg located on the inner ring track being connected to the corresponding spring arm, and one end of the spring leg located on the outer ring track being connected to the support plate provided for supporting the cushion element.
Various embodiments of such support elements as generically described in the introduction are known from the state of the art.
The support elements usually also are called spring elements and are known as mattress sub-structures in combination with slatted bed frame sub-structures as well as rigid, plate-shaped sub-structures. The described support elements are fixed to these plate-shaped sub-structures or slatted frame sub-structures by way of screw connections or, to provide for easier replacement of the support elements, by way of easily loosening fastening techniques, such as quarter-turn fasteners with the base plate having suitable openings.
The support elements are disposed in regular intervals so that a top view of such a design shows a substantially closed support face comprised of the individual support plates that are part of each support element. In principle such designs have proven themselves in the state of the art. However, it was found that for the purpose of optimizing the comfort of a person lying on a cushion cover, e.g. on a mattress, it may be desirable and necessary to devise the spring properties of individual support elements differently in relation to the weight forces that act on them. Consequently, to obtain even comfort, certain areas of the cushion cover, for example the area of the shoulders or pelvis, may require stiffer spring constants for the spring elements due to the higher forces that must be absorbed there than, for example, in the areas with lower weight forces, such as in the leg or head areas.
To attain this, the state of the art already includes support elements in which the spring effect of the spring elements is modified by using corresponding auxiliary components that are inserted into the support elements. For example, the individual spring arms that are responsible for the spring effect of the spring elements can be limited by using auxiliary components with designs being known in which a plastic component with multiple support arms is disposed between the base plate and sub-structure. The plastic component is rotatable about the perpendicular support element central axis in relation to the support element so that the support arms may rest on the individual spring arms in order to stiffen the overall spring effect of the spring element. The contact overall results in a stiffening of the spring arm cross-section so that the deflection of the spring element comprised of the spring arms overall is lower with identical load.
Depending on the design of the cross-section of the support arms, different rotations of the plastic component result in different reinforcements of the spring arm cross-section.
Furthermore, other designs, generally known as lumbar support adjustments, are customary in which stiffening elements between the base plate and the support plate above it are placed on the inside of the support element, said stiffening elements affecting the spring effect of the original spring element. The structure of such auxiliary elements is largely determined by the design of the basic spring elements of the support element that provide the spring effect so that this will not be described in detail here.
All known support elements with integrated lumbar support adjustment have in common that the layout as well as the possible adjustments of such structures can be improved in regard to ergonomic handling and inexpensive manufacturing.
It is desirable to further develop generic support elements known from the state of the art so that the design structure provides for especially easy handling as well as inexpensive manufacturing of the individual components and their assembly.